52 ON METONYMS. 



Armagli in 1347, who translated the Bible into the Irish language ; or 

 else the illustrious James Usher, archbishop of the same see in 1626. 

 Malmesburiensis might be taken perhaps for Thomas Hobbes; or else 

 for William of Malmesbury, whose real name was Somerset. Odericus 

 Vitalis is always quoted under that Latinised form. He was born at 

 Shrewsbury in 1075. (The name of the Continental Vitalis is said to 

 be a conceit for Vita Lis, 'Life is a Strife.') Asserius Menevensis, 

 the adviser of Alfred the Great, is usually Asserius; but he is some- 

 times Azurius, from the Welsh asur, azure. He was a native of 

 Wales. Giraldus Cambrensis is seldom Anglicised. Caius is Key or 

 Kaye. Faber is, as we have seen, Wright or Smith. Carus may be a 

 Latinisation of Car or Ker. (Buchanan so Latinises Ker.) Alabaster 

 is Arblaster, i. e. Arbalistarius, Low-Latin for a cross-bowman. Syives 

 ter is Boys, duBois. Nequam was probably, in the first instance. Neck- 

 ham. With ' William Rufus ' all are familiar. Caesar, as an English 

 surname, has arisen from the disuse of a real family surname. Sir Julius 

 Caesar, master of the rolls, in the reign of James I., thought fit to drop 

 the surname borne by his Italian ancestors. His father's name, on his 

 migrating to England, from Previso, in 1550, was Caesar Adelraare- 

 Dalmare, or Dalmarius. The first Earl of Chester, nephew of the 

 Conqueror, was Hugh Lupus. Plantagenet comes near the Latin, de 

 Planta Genista, ' wearing the cognisance of the broom-spray.' Duns 

 Scotus means probably ' Duns of the northern dialect.' He was born 

 in Northumberland. Erigena, on the face of it, is Erin-born. His 

 full name was Johannes Scotus Erigena — a tautology probably, as in 

 A. D. 880 Scotus alone would denote one ' Erin-born.' Pelagius is a 

 Grecising of Morgan, Armoricus, ' of the sea-board.' He was abbot of 

 Bangor in a. d. 400. Reginaldus Polus and Poli Synopsis are combi- 

 nations not unfamiliar to the English eye. Each involves a Latinisa- 

 tion of the common name Poole. Patrick Young, librarian to James 

 I., metonymised his name into Patricius Junius. There is an author 

 in 1602 of a Historia Britannire Insulas ab Origine Mundi, named 

 Richardus Vitus, who, at Basingstoke, where he was born, would have 

 been vulgarly known as Richard White. (Among continental writers 

 there is a Hugo Candidus. Rhabanus Maurus was, as we have already 

 seen, famous in the ninth century, together with numerous Nigers 

 before and since.) Bovill is Bovillus, Bullock. Erasmus so Latinises 

 the name of his English correspondent Bullock. Lovell is Lupellus, 

 diminutive of Lupus. Llewellin has been Latinised into Leonellus. 



